Ellwood Hoffmann was an avid maker of home movies. The majority of his collection, filmed in 1929, entered the public domain this year. He regularly presented his collection, narrating humorous anecdotes over the footage.

What stories can be told when Hoffmann's images are mixed with dialogue from Hollywood films of the same year?

–––––

I have always loved home movies, and Ellwood Hoffmann's films are really joyous to watch; his family, dogs, cat and holidays all lovingly captured. I wanted to celebrate that warmth with an irreverent twist on the romantic plots of movies from the same year, piecing together new meanings in the footage, and of course taking in Hoffmann's own idiosyncratic presentation with his improvised narration. This film also feels quite specific to 1929 in that the year marked the firm establishment of the 'talkie', so spoken dialogue is more present than ever in films from this point onward – except of course in amateur/home movies! 

Included materials:

(from 1929)

https://archive.org/details/the-cocoanuts

https://archive.org/details/blackmail_1929

https://archive.org/details/glorifying-the-american-girl-1929

https://archive.org/details/great_gabbo

https://archive.org/details/hof-085-1929

https://archive.org/details/chmhof-080-1929

https://archive.org/details/1929TripCalOaklandBigTreesLakeTahoe

https://archive.org/details/hof-032-1926

https://archive.org/details/hof-149-1928

https://archive.org/details/chmhof-180-1928

https://archive.org/details/hof-114-1928

https://archive.org/details/hof-030-1928

https://archive.org/details/hof-104-1928

https://archive.org/details/hof-095-1926

https://archive.org/details/hof-008-1927

https://archive.org/details/hof-019-1928-vitacolor

https://archive.org/details/hof-023-1928

https://archive.org/details/hof-039-1926

https://archive.org/details/chmhof-165-1928

https://archive.org/details/chmhof-076-1926

https://archive.org/details/1928MillBobFredHollworth

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews (1)